Challenges to Fair Trade Conference in Seattle

Co-sponsored by the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies

Friday, February 8th - Saturday, February 9th, 2008 University of Washington

What is involved in implementing fair trade, particularly in a university environment? The speakers--scholars, corporate representatives, and activists-- are all committed to fair trade but offer a variety of perspectives about implementation.

The intent of this conference is to educate the university community about the issues involved in implementing fair trade, particularly in a university environment. Each of the scholars who is attending has something interesting to say about implementing fair trade. They've studied campaigns or monitoring or supply chains. They've thought about how to use consumer power to bring about change in the ways workers are paid or treated. The invitees represent a range of disciplines and research emphases.

The conference is sponsored by The Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs with additional support from the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, the Global Business Center, WISER (Washington Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race and Sexuality), the West Coast Poverty Center, and the UW Licensing Advisory Committee.

This conference is FREE of charge and open to the public!

Schedule:

Friday, February 8

3:30 - 5:00 : Richard Freeman, Labor Standards and Globalization are Complements (Location: Kane Hall 210)

7:30 - 10:00 : Outsourced screening and conversation with striking screen writers John Jeffcoat (co-writer and Director) and George Wing (co-writer and Executive Producer), as well as the Producer, Tom Gorai (Location: Kane Hall 120)

Staturday, February 9 (Location: Parrington Hall Forum - 3rd floor)

8:30 : Continental breakfast

9:15 : Welcome remarks

9:30 - 11:00 : Richard Locke, Virtue out of Necessity?: Compliance vs Commitment Approaches to Improving Working Condition in Global Supply Chains
April Linton, Learning from Critiques of Fair Trade Certification

11:15 - 12:30 : Corporate Responsibility Panel: representatives from adidas Group, Theo's Chocolates, others to be announced

12:30 - 3:00 : Long Lunch (Caucuses today!)

3:00 - 4:15 : After the WTO: Fair Trade Organizing In the Pacific Northwest

• Wondwossen Mezlekia: Fair trade coffee activist and author of: poorfarmer.blogspot.com
• Lupe Gamboa: Program Officer for workers rights, Oxfam America
• Jeremy Simer: Lobbying against CAFTA in Western Washington
• Rachael Taber: Student Labor Action Project (SLAP)
• Scott Nova: Executive Director, Workers' rights Consortium (WRC)

4:30 - 6:00 : Nelsen Lichtenstein: Wal-Mart's Long March to ChinaGay Seidman: Citizens, markets, and transnational labor campaigns

6:00 - 6:15 : Closing Remarks

Academic Speakers:

Richard Freeman holds the Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University. He is currently serving as Faculty Director of the Labor and Worklife Program at the Harvard Law School. He is also director of the Labor Studies Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Senior Research Fellow in Labour Markets at the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance, and visiting professor at the London School of Economics.

Richard Locke is the Alvin J. Siteman (1948) Professor of Entrepreneurship, Professor of Political Science and Faculty Chair of the Sloan Fellows Program. He teaches in both the Sloan School of Management and the MIT Political Science Department. His research focuses on corporate citizenship, entrepreneurship, and economic development.

April Linton is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. Her work encompasses many aspects of globalization, including international migration and how trade is influencing development and environmental outcomes. She is co-editor of The Global Governance of Food: Production, Consumption, and the Environment (forthcoming from Routledge). Her most recent paper is about how Fair Trade producer groups are spending their Fair Trade social premiums.

Nelson Lichtenstein is Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he directs the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy. He is the author of State of the Union: A Century of American Labor and editor of American Capitalism: Social Thought and Political Economy in the 20th Century. He is finishing Sam's World: Wal-Mart and 21st Century Capitalism.

Gay Seidman is Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research has focused on labor movements in developing areas, especially in Southern Africa and Latin America. Her most recent book, Beyond the Boycott (Russell Sage Foundation, 2007) examined transnational labor campaigns in South Africa, India and Guatemala.

For more information about the conference, contact Rebecca Szper: rszper@gmail.com